Franco Albini
Franco Albini is an Italian interior designer, architect, writer and editor who is considered to be the most significant of the Italian “Neo-Rationalist” designers of all times and ages. His legacy and work has lived through even after his demise.
Among his many achievements, Franco Albini was famous for designing the interiors of the Zanini Fur Shop in Milan. Franco Albini was someone who believed in knowledge sharing and passing knowledge to a new generation. This he did very successfully after reaching a consensus with some companies like Cesare Cassina. He worked closely with this company where he met regularly with the upcoming designers to nurture them, and also collaborated and worked hand in hand with the individual designers that were already established there. No wonder the legacy of Franco Albini still lives on to date.
Another achievement for Franco Albini was that he stood out from the crowd with his style to invigorate and revive art and crafts traditions in Italy and the world at large. Franco Albini disliked monotony, that’s why his pieces of art were stylistic and came in variety. He had an unpredictable taste, which has made his legacy live on. After producing the Fiorenza and the Luisa chairs, people thought they had seen the best of Franco Albini. He provd them wrong and came up with the almost animated and inherent rocking chaise that carried a stylish concept with it.
At the time that he was working for Brionvega in 1964, Franco Albini designed a television set that was successfully exhibited at the 1964 Milan triennial. It is at this time also that Franco Albini produced lamps of different designs for another company by the name of Artluce.
Franco Albini’s work could be summed up in two words; style and originality. This came out very clearly in the way Franco Albini together with two of his counterparts, Helg and Bob Noorda worked to design the Milan Subway stations. They worked in a way that they maintained the original and individual identities of the passageway stops, while at the same time making a uniform design in all of them. They did this by using the same repeated materials and the same consistent style and basis for the signs that were used to identify all the stations in Milan.
Thanks to this great achievements, and like any great achievement that has to be rewarded, Franco Albini received Compasso d’Oro awards throughout his career life time and also through out his lifetime. The Compasso d’Oro award was an industrial design award originally from Italy that recognized and appreciated efforts by artists and designers to encourage quality in the industrial design field.
Franco Albini was also recognized in literary work. A book by the name of Custom Built was written in honour of Franco Albini and other prototypes that stood for factory made objects and everything that originated from the objects. Franco Albini might have died, but his furniture design and his work will live for many generations to come.
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